Membership

As a local body of believers, we exist to glorify God by pointing the affections of all peoples to the all-satisfying person of Jesus Christ. We greatly desire the membership process here at Faith Community Bible Church to accomplish this goal. Here is what we see as the primary benefits of membership:

Membership combats the spirit of individualism and encourages the spirit of community that Jesus so frequently references in his gospel (i.e., John 13:35, Heb. 10:25).

Membership provides a way of identifying those who want to be under the leadership of the elders and who want to be held accountable to the commands of our Lord (1 Peter 5:1-5).

Membership encourages theological and philosophical unity in the local body.

Membership provides legal protection for staff members and counselors who may give advice that is contrary to the spirit of our age. Here we want to take to heart Jesus’ words, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).

We encourage all people seeking membership to go through our two-part membership class. This class is offered on an annual basis, usually in the fall. In preparation for the class, we encourage you to become familiar with some of our core documents that describe our theological convictions and philosophical distinctives. At the highest level, we want all members of our body to own our mission statement. This document is our attempt to distill the Christian life down to a single page. It's the wide-angle view of our most profound reason for existing. Beneath this we would like all members of our body to understand our theological convictions. We have two documents that we use to help us specify what we believe. The first document is our statement of faith. This document describes what every member of FCBC must believe. These are the core convictions of every true Christian. The second document is our doctrinal statement. This is a much longer document, and more specific. It describes what we don't want people to teach against. In other words, it is expected that there will be some in our body who hold slightly different theological interpretations of some of the issues spelled out in the doctrinal statement, but we must be careful how we communicate our various interpretations in our body. This does not mean that a teacher cannot present his view and even prefer his view. It simply means that a teacher must not marginalize or belittle the official position of FCBC. In addition to these written resources, we have some supplemental audio resources. In 2009 we did a series on what we believe as a body. We entitled the series, "What We Want To Believe" to highlight the reality that what we say with our mouths and what we believe during the moment of sin is very different. We hope that listening to these will not only give you insight into our theological beliefs but will also challenge you in your walk with Jesus Christ. They are listed here (and also available on the sermons page):

Finally, we ask that members of the church become familiar with our constitution. This describes how we are legally organized under the state of Idaho and also how we have determined to organize ourselves internally. As you prepare for membership and review the documents above, be sure to write down any questions you have, as there will be plenty of time for discussion in the class! We thank you for taking the time to get to know us better, and look forward to getting to know you!